Support No Longer Lorries

CTC is asking all cyclists to take action to prevent longer lorries by asking their MP to write to Mike Penning.

CTC - Working for Cycling

CTC is urging all cyclists to help stop the introduction of dangerously long lorries on our streets. Despite the fact that lorries are involved in a disproportionate number of crashes with both cyclists and pedestrians, road safety minister Mike Penning MP is planning to allow lorries that are over two metres longer! The increase in length will mean bigger blind spots and more tail swing, which is likely to result in more cyclist deaths when a lorry turns.

CTC is asking all cyclists to take action to prevent this by asking their MP to write to Mike Penning. Cyclists can email their MPs directly from www.ctc.org.uk/nolongerlorries.

While left turns account for just 3% of overall road fatalities involving a lorry, the figure for cyclists’ deaths was 38%. Freight on Rail and the Campaign for Better Transport have commissioned research which further suggests that safety would deteriorate with longer lorry trailers.

CTC Campaigns Director, Roger Geffen, said: “Lorries present a serious risk to cyclists – one in five of the deaths of cyclists involve lorries. Allowing even longer lorries onto our roads will mean larger ‘blind spots’, more tail swing and a greater risk of hitting other road users. Instead of increasing the danger from lorries, the Government should be working to reduce the threat that already exists."

Campaigners are also concerned that the increase in lorry length will artificially sustain the market for road haulage and thereby delay any shift to the greener option of rail freight.

CTC is the oldest and largest cycling body in the UK, established in 1878. CTC provides a comprehensive range of services, advice, events and protection for its members and works to promote cycling by raising public and political awareness of cycling's health, social and environmental benefits. Visit www.ctc.org.uk.

The joint statement from Campaign for Better Transport and Freight on Rail – backed by Campaign to Protect Rural England, CTC - the national cyclists’ organisation, Friends of the Earth, Living Streets, RoadPeace and Sustrans can be found here: http://www.freightonrail.org.uk/PressRelease21-06-2011.htm